DVD Release Date: February 28, 2006 (MPI Home Video)
B&W/1963-1964
MSRP: $34.98
Number of Discs: 4
Number of Episodes: 27
Running Time: 720 minutes
Total Run Time of Special Features: approximately 40
minutes
Languages, Subtitles, Closed Captioning: English
subtitles
Special Features: Original Cast Sponsor Commercials;
The Beverly Hillbillies in Japanese; Commentary on
"Giant Jackrabbit" episode; Interviews from Max Baer,
Irene Ryan (archive footage), and Paul Henning
(archive footage)
Introduction:
Get out the ce-ment pond and look at what I have here!
The Beverly Hillbillies: The Ultimate Collection
Volume 2 is the second (and unfortunately, MPI's last)
volume release of the hit fish-out-of-water sitcom
about America's favorite hillbillies that live in one
of the greatest neighborhoods in the United States.
The Beverly Hillbillies is probably one of the most
over-released shows available for DVD (since many,
MANY public domain companies release the series), but
the MPI releases (which, I should add, are AUTHORIZED
releases unlike the rest) stand out above all of the
rest. These sets provide much better video and audio
quality than the rest, provide special features that
are actually interesting to watch, and include the
ORIGINAL theme music (something that other releases
are missing).
Episode Highlights:
Volume 2 picks up right where Volume 1 left off, near
the end of the first season. The set begins with "Jed
Pays His Income Tax," which is mainly just a clip show
remembering the first episode of the series. Next is
the episode "The Clampetts and the Dodgers," an
episode in which Leo Durocher discovers Jethro's
talent for pitching... but all goes wrong when he
finds out that Jethro has been using a performance
enhancer... possum fat! Jim Backus makes a guest
appearance in "The Clampetts Entertain." The Clampetts
get psychoanalyzed in "The Clampetts Get
Psychoanalyzed" and "The Psychiatrist Gets
Clampetted." Jethro meets a new friend at school (who
is the complete opposite of the Clampetts) in
"Jethro's Friend." Look for Hayden Rorke in that
episode. Other first season episodes included in this
set are "Duke Becomes a Father," "The Clampetts in
Court," and "Elly Becomes a Secretary."
Season two begins with the episodes "Jed Gets the
Misery" and "Hair-Raising Holiday," in which Granny is
feeling depressed about not being able to continue her
practice as a physician in Beverly Hills. The
Clampetts start a fashion trent in "The Clampett
Look." Another J.D. Clampett (one that has been a
failure in life) suddenly finds himself millions of
dollars richer due to a bank mistake in "The Clampetts
are Overdrawn." Mrs. Drysdale finds out that the hard
way that the Clampetts are more exciting partiers than
she is in "The Garden Party." The family decides to
move back home after Jethro is kicked out of school
(but of course, Mr. Drysdale won't allow THAT to
happen) in "The Clampetts Get Culture." Next, we have
"The Giant Jackrabbit," in which Granny finds a
kangaroo in the backyard and believes it is, well, a
giant jackrabbit. This episode, though many fans can't
understand why (there was nothing extraordinary about
this episode) holds a very special distinction that no
other show has claimed to this date--it holds the
record for the highest rated half hour episode of any
show, EVER. Lafe Crick shows up, and wants Jethro to
marry his daughter (so he can get some of Jed's money)
in "The Girl From Home" and "Lafe Lingers On." Other
season 2 episodes included are "Granny's Garden,"
"Elly Starts to School," "Jethro's First Love,"
"Chickadee Returns," "The Clampetts Go to Hollywood,"
"Turkey Day," "Elly Needs a Maw," "A Man for Elly,"
and "The Race for Queen." By the way, episode 50,
"Christmas at the Clampetts" is not included in this
set, because it was already included in the MPI
Christmas episodes release that contained both The
Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction.
Packaging:
There isn't a lot to say here, because there really
isn't much to the packaging and also, the packaging is
virtually identical to the packaging for Volume 1. The
packaging style used is once again a thick Amaray
case, but the inside of it is a lot better this time.
There are four discs, with two of the discs having
their own holder within the case, and a two-sided
middle panel that holds Discs 2 and 3. The cover art
is very simplistic, just the Clampett clan with a
purple background.
The thing that is missing this time that is vital for
a DVD set is episode listings. Nowhere on the set does
it indicate where you can find which episodes. This is
a bit of a nuisance for sets when they aren't there,
but for something like this, where the collection
being released isn't consistent with season numbers
and such, this is vital, and the lack of any episode
listings makes this set a bit frustrating. Volume 1
had a pamphlet with this information. As for the
breakdown of the set, Discs 1-3 contain 7 episodes
each and Disc 4 contains 6 episodes.
Menu Design and Navigation:
Just like the packaging, the menus have not changed
for this set. When you put the disc in, the closing
music plays with various scenes from the show, and
then a main menu comes up with options for Play,
Episodes, Subtitles, and Bonus Features (only on Disc
4), all of which are rather self-explanatory. The
Episodes menus are the same too, with a small picture
from each episode on the menu.
Once again, there is no scene selection menu, and
also, there are no chapters within the episodes.
Video and Audio Quality:
I should first say about the video quality that no
matter what else I say about it, it is generally
pretty good--much better than the video quality of
other DVD releases of the show, but perhaps not as
good as the video quality on WGN episodes. The major
problems (which seem to be more problematic in this
set than the last one) are grain and vertical lines...
everywhere. Audio quality is not as much of an issue,
because the audio quality is as good as one would
expect for a show that is over 40 years old. Clearly,
the audio is in mono, but it sounds pretty clear
(though obviously not perfect). For the hearing
impaired, English subtitles are available.
The episodes all run at roughly 25:30, so they are
(presumably) uncut. Some of the sponsorship elements
that are not integral to the plots of the episodes
seem to be missing, but then again, Disc 4 seems to
contain most of these in a separate special feature.
It would be nice if those were inserted back into
their proper place within the episodes, but then
again, it shouldn't be expected for any company to
even include these at ALL, so the fact that they are
even included is a rare treat.
Special Features:
The sponsorships are back again for every episode...
and the sponsors are still Winston Cigarettes and
Kellogg's, rotating their sponsorship on each episode.
These sponsorships are found in these short tags
placed immediately after the opening credits, as well
as in the bottom left hand corner of the screen on the
closing credits. On Disc 4, there are additional Cast
Commercials (25:00). This seems to just be the parts
of the episodes that I referred to in the previous
section that advertised the products, but had nothing
to do with the plot of the respective episode. Some of
these are boring to sit through, but there were two
that I found pretty interesting, such as the first one
where the Clampetts (and Miss Jane) were singing a
song about supporting American farmers, and talking
about why America should be so proud since Americans
spend less on groceries than Russians do. Another one
that I liked was a Winston promo in which Granny was
loading up on cigarettes for a "rainy day" and had
probably 100 packs of Winston in a cabinet in the
kitchen--talk about being addicted to smoking! It is
pretty amazing really that these hillbillies that
understand nothing about mainstream American culture
know so much about a specific brand of cigarettes, but
then again, it IS just television. In addition to all
of this, some episodes even have public service
announcements at the end of the episode.
Next we have "The Beverly Hillbillies in Japanese,"
(4:01) which is a very odd feature to watch--you can
hear the Clampetts talk in Japanese on various scenes
from various episodes! The video quality is horrible
on it, but it is nonetheless interesting. For some
reason, Jed's voice kind of sounded more like Fred
Sanford than Jed, but then again, hillbilly accents
don't exactly translate into Japanese.
Next, there is an audio commentary for one of the
episodes ("Giant Jackrabbit") by Stephen Cox, who
wrote a book about the series several years ago. I'm
not a big fan of these commentaries where just one
person talks like this, but he does provide a lot of
trivia about the show in general that most people may
not know, such as how Granny's wig and glasses have
been preserved and are likely to be submitted to the
Smithsonian sometime in the near future.
The remaining special features are all interviews--but
don't be excited, because most of these are old stock
footage interviews, although they may very well be
rare interviews. The only "new" interview on here is
an interview with Max Baer Jr. (6:32) in which he
talks about the show in general, just as he did on the
Volume 1 set. Since Max Baer could do this, why
couldn't he have joined Stephen Cox to make the "Giant
Jackrabbit" commentary more exciting? Oh well. Next,
there is a 1966 Irene Ryan "interview" from the show
Talent Scouts with Art Linkletter (4:41). I say
"interview" because this isn't REALLY an interview,
but rather just Art Linkletter showing Irene Ryan
footage from episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies that
are dubbed in Japanese as well as some dubbed in
Spanish, and getting her reaction--not incredibly
exciting. The final interview (though old) is pretty
good though... a 1969 interview with Paul Henning
(8:15), discussing the show as well as his career in
general. I'm not sure what this interview is from;
however, it makes no indication of that anywhere on
the set or within the interview.
The special features aren't nearly as impressive this
time (the only new interview this time is the one from
Max Baer), but still, the features are pretty good.
Final Comments:
It is sad that this will be MPI's last release of the
show. They have done such a great job in the way that
they have handled the release of the earlier episodes,
especially in regards to special features. Rumor is
that Paramount will be releasing the show on DVD at
some unknown date, but there is no word on exactly
what they will be handling the release, such as
whether they will start over with the first season or
pick up where MPI left off. Paramount would likely do
a little bit of a better job of restoring the video
quality of episodes, but the DVD sets in general
probably will not be as good when (if) they release
the series, because they probably won't put as much
attention into details such as special features and
sponsorship elements of the show. Honestly, I'd prefer
to see MPI do the rest of the series, even if it does
mean slightly compromised video quality (don't get me
wrong, the video quality is NOT "atrocious"), but in a
world of copyrights and competing interests, it seems
Paramount may have plans all on their own and will
leave MPI out of that equation. Hopefully, though, no
matter what, later episodes will be released by
somebody, and whoever does it will do a good job with
them, and include special features such as the ones
included on these MPI releases. But until then, get
these Beverly Hillbillies sets--they are more than
worth it.
